TAUNTON — Statewide spending in mayoral elections hit record levels in 2013, with candidates spending an average of $20.96 per vote they received.

That finding and others were highlighted in a recent report by the Office of Campaign and Political Finance. The 63 Massachusetts mayoral candidates in 2013 spent a record total of $8.8 million while raising $8.5 million. More than $6 million of those expenditures came from Boston mayoral finalists Martin Walsh and John Connolly.

“Money played a huge role in the Boston mayoral race,” said Pam Wilmot, executive director of nonprofit Common Cause Massachusetts. “The amounts that were required to be the top candidates were incredible.”

Outside of Boston, the numbers were more reasonable, Wilmot said.

“Boston really skewed the results in a lot of the state,” she said. “There are a lot of reasonably priced mayoral election races out there, candidates raising $15,000 or $20,000. But when you get up to the million range, that’s not something that can be done with concerned citizens. You have to have interest groups in there.”

Taunton Mayor Thomas C. Hoye Jr. spent an average of $4.03 for every vote he received in last year’s election.

Running unopposed, Hoye spent $19,548.29, while taking in $48,035 leading up to the 2013 election, according to the report.

Hoye garnered 4,846 votes, solidly maintaining his seat for another two years.

“In this particular case, some of the money goes to charitable organizations, which I’m proud to be able to help out,” Hoye said. “It is what it is.”

Hoye said the most difficult “part of being a mayor or a public official is fundraising.”

The expenditures cited in the report include fundraising expenses, as well as election materials. Fundraising political candidates often pay out sums of money for venues and food, in order to raise money for their campaign war chests. They’ve got to spend money, to make money.

“Unfortunately it’s a necessary evil, and I’m just glad I can spend some of that to help others,” Hoye said. “We pay to maintain our website, and we’ve given donations to Taunton wrestling, softball and youth soccer, The Boys & Girls Club, and the Star Players.”

In the previous election, Hoye’s first for mayor, when he was opposed by former superintendent Gerald Croteau, both candidates spent more than $60,000, Hoye recalled.

A competitive mayoral race means far more election-spending pours into the local economy (more than $120,000 spent by Croteau and Hoye in 2011, as opposed to less than $20,000 in 2013).

“If you want to stay in the job and see your vision through it’s dependent that you stay in office,” Hoye said. “It’s the part of the job nobody really likes, but to maintain your seat you have to be an effective fundraiser.”

Page 2 of 2 - Hoye said he plans to run again in 2015.

In 2013, mayoral candidates who outspent their rivals won 80 percent of the time in Massachusetts.

In smaller communities, such as Amesbury and Newburyport, candidates spent more modestly. Mayoral candidates in those two towns, for example, spent $24,347 and $42,590, respectively.

Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria, who had $247,672 in expenditures, spent $54.33 on his campaign for every vote he got, a new Massachusetts record.

Contested races weren’t the only ones to feature campaign fundraising and expenses. Unopposed candidates frequently continue to raise and spend money, often to “augment their political futures,” Wilmot said.

For the most part, the amount of money involved in campaigns outside Boston show the mayor’s office isn’t necessarily reserved for the wealthy, UMass Boston political science professor Maurice Cunningham said.

“It’s the great hope of democracy,” Cunningham said. “In light of Citizens United, the (April 2) decision by the Supreme Court and dark money, it’s nice to see in smaller towns that you can still get elected to the executive position with that kind of money.”

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled April 2 that aggregate limits on political donations are unconstitutional.

Haverhill’s election was devoid of big money expenditures. Mayor James Fiorentini spent just $1.72 on his campaign per vote he received, the lowest in the state among winning candidates.

“These local offices, where people can run, not on money, but by getting out and individually meet citizens and have other citizens work for them, that’s real democracy,” Cunningham said. “We have little of it. We should cherish it.”

The OCPF’s report does not include candidates who failed to make the final ballot. In Boston, 12 candidates spent a total of $10.9 million, but the report only includes the combined $6 million Walsh and Connolly spent. The report also doesn’t include the $3.8 million in independent expenditures outside groups made to support the two candidates.

— Gerry Tuoti is the Regional Newsbank Editor for GateHouse Media New England. Email him at gtuoti@tauntongazette.com or call him at 508-967-3137. Taunton Gazette staff writer Rory Schuler contributed to this report.